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7 ' f Pitch your Tent among the Dead. 



AN APPEAL TO YOUNG MEN. 



Conclusion of a Speech Delivereo at Cleveland, Ohio, 




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BY 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, 

H«e-Ou tlie Saturday >iijtlit before tlie *>llio•^>" 
iClection of 1879. 



Now, fellow-citizens, a word before I leave you, on 
the very eve of the holy clay of God — a tit moment to 
consecrate ourselves liually to the «,Teat work of next 
Tuesday morning. I see in this vast audience to- 
ni<^ut a oreiit manv voun<^ men — voung men who are 
about to cast their first vote. I want to give them 
a word of suggestion and advice. I heard a very 
brilliant thing said by a boy, the other day, in one of 
our noi-th-westem counties. He said to me, " Oeneral, 
I have a great mind to vote the DemocTatic ticket." 
That was not the brilliant thing. I said to him, 
• Win ?" " AVhy," said lie '* my father is a Republi*- 
aii, and my brothei^s are Ecj)ubhcan8, and I am a 
Uepublican all over; but I want to be an independent 
man, and I don't want anybody to say, ' That fellow 
votes the Republican ticket just be(;aus(» his dad 
does,' and I have half a mind to vote the Democratic^ 
tii'ket just to prove my independence." I did not 
like tlie thing he suggested, but I did admu-o the 
spiiit of the hoy that wanted to have some indepeud- 
, enc«i of liis own. 



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Now, youii';" man, don't vote the Republican ticket 
just because your father votes it. Don't vote the 
Democratic ticket, even if he does vote it. But let 
me give you this one word of advice, as you are 
about to jiitcli your tent in one of the great political 
camps. Your life is full and buoyant with hope now, 
Jind when you pitch your tent, I beg you to pitch it 
among the living and not among the dead. If you 
are at all inchned to pitch it within the lines of the 
Democratic party, let me go with you for a moment 
wliile we survey the gi'ound where I hope you will 
not shortly lie. It is a sad place, young man, for you 
to put your young life into. It is far more like a 
gi*ave-yard than like a camp for the hving. Look at 
it ! It is billowed all over with the gi'aves of. dead 
i.ssues, of buried opinions, of exploded theories, of 
disgraced doctrines. You cannot live in comfort in 
such a phicf. AVhy, look here ! Here is a double 
mound. I look do^^-n on it and read: " Sacred to the 
memory of Squatter Sovereignty and the Dred Scott 
DecLsion." A million and a half of Democrats voted 
for these, but they have been dead fifteen years — 
died by the hand of Abraham Lincoln, and here they 
lie. Young man, that is not the place for you. 

But look a little further. Here is another mound, 
a black tomb, and above it towel's to the sky a 
monument of foui- niilhon jmirs of human fetters 
biken from Uie limbs of slaves, and I read on its grim 
face: •'Sacred to the memory of Human Slavery." 
For forty yearn of its infamous life the Democratic 
})arty tiiught that it was divine — God's institution. 
They defended it, they stood around it. they followed 
it to itfl gi*ave as inouniei-s. lint here it lies, dead 



by the liand of Abnili.iiit Lincoln; ilvtul \>\ tlie jxjwer 
of tlie Republican party ; ib-ud by the jiuitioc of 
Almi{^hty God. Don't ninip then*, yoiinj^ man. 

But here is anotluT a little brinintono t/)nib in<l 
I rea*! acrofw it** yellow fa**e, in lurid, bKx^ly lin« -. 
those words ' Sm're<l to the nieinorv of State 
Sovereignty and SeroHKion." Twelve inillionH of 
Deniocnits mustered arf)und it to keep it alive; l)ut 
here it lies, sljot to death by the million j^nms of the 
Hej)ublic. Here it lies, its shrino burned to iLshes 
under the blazin«,' rafters of the buniinp (.'onfederaev. 
It is dead! I would not have you ntay a moment, 
even in this balmy ni^dit air, to look at Hueh a place. 

But just l>eforo we leave 1 dis<'over a new-made 
g^rave, a little mound - shoH. The j^Tass has hardly 
sprouted over it, and all around I see toni pie<'e8 of 
paper with the word " tiat " on them, and I look down 
in cunosity, wondering what the little f^rtixo is, and I 
read: "Sacred to the memory of the Ba«^ Baby; 
nursed in the brain of \nld fanaticism; r«H"ked by 
Thomas Kwiji;^^ (ieorj/e H. Pendleton, Samuel Carev, 
and a few others throughout the land. But it died 
on the Ist of January, 1879, and the one hundre<l and 
forty millions of gold that God made, and not tiat 
power, lie ujM»n its little carcass to keej) it down 
f(^rever. 

Oh, young man, come out of thiit ! It is no ]>hu < 
in which to ])ut your young life. Come out »uid 
enter this <*am{> of lil)erty, of onler, of law, of justii • 
of free<lom. of all that is glorious under these night 
stars. 

Is tluTc any drath hen* m our cainj> • \rs! >t's 
rhrcf Iniii'bt '1 "i.l fiffv thotis^md soldi*''-^. ♦!••• 






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noblest band that ever trod the earth, died to make 
this a camp of f^lory aud of hbeily forever. But tl+ere' 
are no dead issues here. Tliere are no dead ideas ^^ 
here. Han<^ out (jur banner from the bhie sky'tliis 
ni«,dit until it shall sweep the green turf under your 
feet. It hangs over our camp. Read away uj) under 
the stai>> the inscriptions we have written upon it. lo ! 
these twenty-five years. 

Twenty- five yeai*s ago tlie Republican part}' was 
married to Libert v, and this is our silver weddiuir. 
A worthily married j^air hjve each other better on 
the day of theu* silver wedding than on the day of 
theii- tirst espousal ; and we are truer to Liberty to-day 
and dearer to God than when we spoke our fii-st 
word of liberty. Read away up under the sky across 
our starry banner those first words we uttered twenty- 
tive years ago : " Slavery shall never extend over 
another foot of the territory of the great AVest I " Ls 
that dead or alive V .Vlive, thank God, for evermore ! 
And truer to-night than it was the hour it was 
written. Then it was a hope, a promise, a puii)Ose. 
To-night, im|X'rishable as the stai-s- it is inmiortiil 
liistory, immortal truth. 

Come down the ghn'ious folds of our bamicr. 
Every great record we have made we have vindicated 
with our blood and our truth. It sweeps the earth 
and it touches tlio stai-s. Come into tliis camj), 
young man, and ])ut in your young life where all is 
living, and wliere nothing is deatl but the hen>es . 
that defend('<l if I lliiiik tliese N«»ung mt-n will 

come. LIBRPRY OF CONGRESS 

Soc. 



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